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ADDRESS 

Delivered by 

Miss Mildred Lewis Rutherford 

I, 

Athens, Georgia 

HISTORIAX GENERAL 

The United Daughters of the 
Confederacy 

1911-1916 



The Civilization of the Old South: What 

Made It: What Destroyed It: What 

Has Replaced It: 



DALLAS, TEXAS 

Thursday, Nov. 9th, 1916 
Municipal Hall 



^1^^ 

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AutaDi») 



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The Civilization of the Old South: What Made It: 
What Destroyed It: What Has Replaced It: 



s^ INTRODUCTION 

JC? Tonight, I bring to you my last message as Historian General. 

^> I must confess there comes with it a certain sadness, for I have 

so enjoyed this honor which you have bestowed upon me for 

the past five years — the highest honor, I consider, to a woman in 

the gift of women. 

It has brought me in close historical touch with distinguished 
men and women all over our land, and it has enabled me to form 
many charming friendships, for which I thank you. The beau- 
tiful words of appreciation I have received from all have touched 
me greatly, especially the tender, loving words of encourage- 
ment, cheer, and help that have come to me from our Veterans. 
God bless and keep them with us many more years to aid us 
in righting the wrongs against our South and her high ideals. 

I must not lose this opportunity, Daughters of the Confederacy, 
one and all, to thank you for the lovely roses you have so freely 
cast into my life ! I have ever believed in the doctrine of throw- 
ing the roses while one lives — so there will be no need for you 
to send any floral tribute to lay upon my casket when this life 
on earth shall have ended. 

"While I shall no longer be with you in person at our Conven- 
tions, I shall be with you in spirit, sympathy, love and co-opera- 
tion ; and while I shall no longer be your historical guide, I will 
be with you under the guidance of our new Historian General, 
Mrs. Rose. May I not bespeak for her the same courtesies you 
have extended to me ? May we not assure her that we shall ever be 
ready to stand by her and to follow where she leads ? She can . 
do no effective work unless we do this. Do not cramp her in 
finances, I beg you for, after the care of our Veterans, the his- 
torical, which is included in the educational, is the greatest work 
before us today as Daughters of the Confederacy. 

While I shall leave you as Historian General, I shall con- 
tinue to stress the righting of the wrongs of history through 
the History Circles which Mr. Clark has offered to finance, pro- 
vided I promise to organize them, and prepare the monthly 



programs for them. Through these Circles I shall use my ut- 
most endeavor to see that not only our own people shall know 
our history and give authority for it, but that the books true 
to the South as well as the North shall be placed in all libraries 
in our land. I hope the Daughters as well as Veterans will en- 
courage this work. It is broad in its scope and will reach our 
young people as no other method can do. I beg you do not 
attach a selfish motive to the founder or organizer of this move- 
ment. 

I shall not be personally happy until two sets of books The 
South in the Building of the Nation, and The Library of South- 
ern Literature that supplements it, are in every home, especially 
the homes where there are young people attending school or 
college. These books have been carefully prepared by Southern 
men, authorities on all subjects treated, and they contain the 
best information to place in your libraries in order to counter- 
act the unfair encyclopoedias, histories, literatures and other 
text-books now upon every shelf. 

With such strong Southern Publishing Houses as the B. F. 
Johnson & Co. at Richmond, Va., and The Southern Publishing 
Co. at Dallas, Texas, and with such patriotic men as Mr. James 
D. Crump and Mr. Lemon at the head of them, Boards of Edu- 
cation, Superintendents, and Presidents of Schools in the South 
need no longer have any hesitation in deciding upon the adopt- 
ion of books which are true to the South. 

If you have not examined Miss Turpin 's History of the United 
States, do so; if you have not examined the two histories by 
Hall, Smithers and Owsley, do so ; if you do not know Matthew 
Page Andrews ' two histories send for them ; if you do not know 
the history written by Dr. Frank Riley and others, examine it. 

Watch also the text-books on literature as .well as the geogra- 
phies and readers for our young people. I understand B. F. 
Johnson & Co. are preparing a most excellent set of Readers for 
Primary and Academic classes. Be on the look out for these. 
I understand also that Virginia is using a text-book "Slavery 
in Virginia" which gives the truth regarding Virginia's attitude 
to this institution. This is a step in the right direction. Geor- 
gia is using Lawton B. Evans's histories, Hansell's Higher His- 
tory of the United States published in Louisiana is very fair. The 
Daughters of the Confederacy, the Veterans, the Sons of Vet- 
erans and the Children of the Confederacy, through their lead- 
ers, are stressing text-books true to history. We must have the 

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right books put into the hands of our young people as they pre- 
pare essays along historical lines. This is our privilege and duty. 

It has taken the South a long time to realize her indebtedness 
to S. A. Cunningham of the Confederate Veteran for preserving 
the history of the War between the States, to Thomas Nelson 
Page for preserving the history of the Old South, and to Thomas 
Dixon for daring to tell the truth about Reconstruction Days 
and that period of the South 's humiliation. That monument 
to our Mr. Cunningham should long ago have been erected. 
Daughters, do not let us, and other friends, delay to send in 
our subscriptions to hasten its erection. 

So many subjects have been claiming my attention for this last 
address to you that it has been difficult to decide upon any one. 
However, I believe I have made no mistake in the one chosen — • 
for it gives me an opportunity to present to our young people 
in its true light the institution of slavery as it really existed in 
the South, and will enable me to right many wrongs regarding 
it which have come down to them not only through history and 
literature, but also through poetry, art, fiction, and fable. 

The Civilization of the Old South. 
PART I. 

The civilization of the Old South was truly unique — nothing 
like it before or since, nor wuU there ever be anything like it 
again. 

Henry R. Jackson said : 

"The stern glory of Sparta, the rich beauty of Athens, the 
splendors of Imperial Rome, the brilliancy of ancient Carthage 
— all pale before the glories of the Old South, the South as our 
forefathers lived it, the South as Washington, Jefferson, and 
Madison lived it, and, last but not least, the South as our Robert 
E. Lee lived it." 

And Henry Grady said : 

* ' In the honor held above estate ; in the hospitality that neither 
condescended nor cringed ; in frankness and heartiness and whole- 
sale comradeship ; in the reverence paid to wopaanhood and the 
inviolable respect in which woman's name was ever held — the 
civilization of the Old South has never been surpassed, and per- 
haps will never again be equalled by any people or nation upon 
this globe." 

It is true that it has been compared to the Feudal System 

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of the Middle Ages, when military lords exercised jurisdiction 
over serfs, allotted them land, collected taxes from them and in 
return demanded service in time of war — but there was no love 
lost between lord and serf. 

It has been compared to the English tenant system, where the 
landlord leases the land, and, so long as the rent is paid, all is 
well, but if the tenant fails to pay his rent, then he is ejected 
without mercy — very rarely is there any love lost between the 
landlord and his tenant. 

Very different was the relation that existed between the slave- 
holder and his slaves under the institution of slavery as it was 
in the Old South. By the way, the negroes in the South were 
never called slaves — that -term came in with the Abolition cru- 
sade. They were our servants, part of our very home, and al- 
ways alluded to as the servants of a given plantation or town 
home — as, ' ' the servants of "White Marsh, " " the servants of "Warn- 
er Hall," "the servants of Rosewall or Rosewell, " or of Halscot 
''the servants of Cherry Hill," "the servants of Round Hill, of 
Silver Hall," etc. The servants had no surnames of their own 
before the war — they had none when they came to us from 
Africa — but they were known by the names of their owners 
or owners' estates. Thus it was that Nancy from the Thornton 
plantation after freedom became Nancy Thornton ; and Tom from 
"Warner Hall became Tom Warner. 

There was something in the economic system of the Old South 
that forged bonds of personal interest and affection between the 
master's family and their servants — a pride that was taken the 
one in the other. The master would boast, ' 'My servants are the 
best on all the plantations round, best workers, best mannered, 
most contented, the healthiest." And the servants in turn would 
say, "Our white folks are quality folks — they're none of your 
po' white trash. Aint nobody in the world like our 'ole marster' 
and 'ole Mis'." 

The negroes under the institution of slavery were well-fed, 
well-clothed and well-housed. A selfish interest, if no nobler 
or higher motive, would have necessitated this, for the slave was 
the master's salable property. He would not willingly have 
allowed him to be injured physically. How hard it was for us 
to make the North understand this! 

I never heard of a case of consumption, or rather tuberculosis 
among the negroes before the War between the States, and now 
negroes are dying by the hundreds yearly. I never heard 

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of but one crazy negro before the war. Now asylums can not 
be built fast enough to contain those who lose their minds. 

Negroes were immune from yellow fever before the war, and 
now this is no longer true. 

I never saw a drunken negro before the war, for they were not 
allowed to buy, sell or drink liquor without the master's consent, 
and crimes now so prevalent, largely on account of drunkenness, 
were unheard of then. 

The negroes were forced to go to church and white pastors 
employed to preach to them. They were not allowed to work 
on Sunday. In proportion to population, there were more 
negroes as church members than whites. 

Marriage licenses must be obtained and the marriage take place 
in the presence of "Ole Marster" or the overseer. 

Under the institution of slavery, the negro race increased more 
rapidly than the white. The reverse is the case today. 

The servants were very happy in their life upon the old planta- 
tions. William Makepeace Thackeray, on a lecture tour in 
America, visited a Southern plantation. In *' Roundabout Papers" 
he gives this impression of the slaves : 

' ' How they sang ! How they danced ! How they laughed ! 
How they shouted! How they bowed and scraped and compli- 
mented! So free, so happy! I saw them dressed on Sunday in 
their Sunday best — far better dressed than our English tenants 
of the working class are in their holiday attire. To me, it is the 
dearest institution I have ever seen and these slaves seem far 
better off than any tenants I have seen under any other tenantry 
system. ' ' 

"When a white child was born a negro of corresponding age was 
given. This negro owned the white child as much as the white 
child owned the negro. The negro refused to take an order from 
any young person save the owner and the owner refused to have 
any order given by any one but the owner. Close ties of affection 
grew between the two. As an illustration of this, in a child's 
game "Playing Dead," my sister was allowed to be covered in 
the leaves as dead but my Ann Eliza could not play dead. 

How restful the old life was ! What a picture of contentment, 
peace and happiness it presented! It was something like our 
grandmothers' garden as compared with the gardens of today. 

The old-fashioned gardens with box-bordered beds so dignified 
and orderly and stately, with four o 'clocks, holly hocks, lark- 
spurs, touch-me-nots, wall flowers, bachelor buttons, snap drag- 

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ons, migonette, sweet alyssum, columbine and sunflower. How 
beautiful they were! What lovely overdresses the four o 'clocks 
made for our flower dolls ! What beautiful wreaths the larkspurs 
made, purple and white, which we pressed without compunction 
in the finest books in our father's library, totally unconscious 
of the ugly stain left behind. 

There were long walks bordered with cape jessamine, banana 
shrubs, Chinese magnolias, crepe myrtle, rose beds filled with 
moss roses, (I never see a pink moss rose now,) yellow roses, red 
and pink single roses, tube roses ; fences covered with Cherokee 
roses; summer houses covered with honeysuckle, yellow jasmine, 
woodbine, wisteria or white clematis. The odor of sweet grass 
and mimosa blooms, the rows of flowering pomegranate bushes, 
with double blossoms and the bearing pomegranate with single 
blossom — apple trees in which the mocking birds' nests were 
found, and no one white or black could rob a mocking bird's nest, 
and, in the spring, doves cooing to their mates — that's like the 
old-time days never to return again. 

The plantation was the center of social life in the old system 
and the "Big House" was the center of plantation life. It was 
always full and room for more. When all the beds were filled, 
pallets were made on the floors all over the house, and this gave 
trouble to no one — for there were plenty of servants to do the 
bidding, and mattresses, feather beds, pillows, quilts, blank- 
-ets and marvelous counterpanes in profusion, and linen closets 
;always full. 

In the "Big House" there lived "Ole Marster" and "Ole 
Mis." There were ''Young Marster" and "Young Mis," and 
the children. Then there were the uncles and aunts and cousins 
to remotest kindship, with carriages, wagons, horses and serv- 
ants. This gave trouble to no one, for there was plenty in the 
corn crib, plenty in the barn, plenty in the smokehouse, plenty 
in the pantry, plenty of turkeys, geese, ducks, guineas, chickens 
and squabs. Plenty of eggs, plenty of butter, cheese, cream, 
curds, clabber, sweetmilk and buttermilk — barn full, yard full, 
dairy full, pantry full. Shelves lined with jellies, jams, apple 
butter, quince and peach preserves, brandy peaches, marmalade, 
and large stone jars filled with pickles, sweet and sour. 

The table fairly groaned with good things to eat, and there were 
no cooks like grandmother's old cooks. The kitchen was never in 
the house but way out in the yard. This mattered littte then, for 
there were plenty of little negroes to run back and forth with 



the covered dishes and hot batter cakes, hot waffles, hot ^ rolls 
and even hot ginger cakes. You yoimg people will say "But 
it was not stylish to have so much on the table." No, not stylish, 
but far better than the little "dabs of nothingness" that you 

have today. 

You may say, "What sinful waste!" Yes, there was a waste 
but it was not sinful, for white and black had enough and to 
spare. The household servants always had what the white people 
at the Big House had, and the poor whites near by, if any, had 
more from "Ole Mis' " generous hand. 

The stables were full of riding horses, buggy horses, carriage 
horses and ponies, so riding parties were the amusement for 
mornings and afternoons. Every girl and boy in the Old South 
learned to ride and di^ive at an early age. The little boys help- 
ed to take the horses to water, and to break the wildest colts. 
This made the masters' sons the finest cavalrymen in the Con- 
federate Army. 

In the evenings, old Uncle Ned, the fiddler, would come into the 
great wide hall and the Virginia Keel would be danced, "Ole 
Marster" leading off with the prettiest girl there as his partner. 
Then the dignified minuet would be called for, and " Ole Marster" 
would lead out "Ole Mis' " with the gallantry of Sir Gallahad 
and wind up with the cotillion, old Ned calling out the figures, 
keeping time with his foot and head, as he would sing out, "Salute 
your pardners," Swing your pardners, "Sachez to the right," 
then "Sachez to the left," and finally "Promenade all." 

Young people, we could not have danced the ''Turkey Trot" 
nor the "Bunny Hug" had we desired. 

Early hours were kept on the old plantation, for every one 
must be stirring at daybreak. "Ole Mis' " would be the first 
to rise. Hers was a busy life. She started all the household 
servants to their work— the dry rubbers, and brass polishers. 
Ah, how those brass fenders, andirons and candlesticks shone! 
They had few carpets in those days and so the floors had to be 
polished by being dry rubbed. The garments had to be cut out 
for the seamstresses, and the looms gotten ready for the weavers, 
and the spinning wheels had to be started, breakfast had to be 
given out and the cooks must begin their work. 

Early in the morning, you could hear the beating of the 
dough— no biscuit inills then— and if we had beaten biscuits, 
they were made with "elbow grease." You could hear the 
milkers as they went down to the cow lot, calling the little 

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negroes to keep off the calves. You could hear Aunt Nanny 
feeding the chickens, with her chick, chick, CHICKEE, with 
a rising intonation of the voice on the last chickee, and then a 
■cackle, and we knew one of the chickens for breakfast was about 
to meet its fate and have its neck wrung. No refrigerator in 
those days to keep the chickens on ice over-night. 

I can see "Ole Mis' " now with her basket of medicines on 
her arm going from cabin to cabin doctoring the sick babies and 
the old negroes. Frequently all night long she lingered at the 
bedside of some dying negro, praying with him and when life 
had ceased, would close the staring glassy eyes. None in the 
"Big House" knew of this nightly vigil save "Ole Marster. 

I can hear the musical ring of the bunch of keys fastened to 
her side, or in her key basket, as she walked along, for, while 
Uncle Eben kept the crib key, and Aunt Lishy the dairy key, and 
Aunt Nanny the smokehouse key, ''Ole Mis' " always kept 
the pantry key. She gave out every meal herself, weighed the 
flour, sugar, butter, lard and meal, measured the coffee, and she 
always- skimmed the cream in the dairy and prepared the milk 
for the churns, and made the curds. 

There was such an unjust article to the South in The New 
York Times last year, (1915). Edna Ferber, the authoress, is 
represented as saying that ''The kitchens of the Soathern women 
were left to the device of a company of slaves who ran the house 
pretty much to suit themselves. The Southern women never 
knew what provisions there were in the kitchen or cellar or how 
much food went out each day to furnish feasts in the near-by 
cabins. They knew nothing of housekeeping." 

What absolute ignorance this showed of life in the Old South ! 
Fortunately a Southern girl who had statistics in hand was ready 
to answer iMiss Ferber. She found in a trunk of papers and 
letters belonging to her great grandmother who lived on her 
plantation in "Washington Co., Ga., facts to contradict this in a 
most certain way. She found the "Plantation Book of 1851," in 
which the daily routine of work by the mistress of the plantation 
was given. In this memorandum book was kept not only the 
household duties, but how many lbs. of cotton had been picked 
by the women and children on the plantation — "Martha 806 
lbs., Mary 1,243 lbs., and Eliza 920 lbs." etc., and the prize 
money allowed them for picking over a certain amount, and 
then "something to George who couldn't pick, but who helped 
with the baskets." 

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Then followed the exact weight of the lard and the meat given 
to each family— "John and his family 62 lbs. of meat, Lewis, 
Patty and Martha 30 lbs." Then the amounts given to the 
decrepit negroes in the cabins. Finally the prescriptions left 
by the doctor for two of her negro patients. Then the death 
of a negro baby is recorded. The birth and death of the negroes 
were always recorded in the Family Bible at the Big House. 

NoAv when Miss Sarah Prince Thomas (Carol North) sent her 
answer to the article in The New York Times, and asked that it 
be printed to contradict Miss Ferber's statements, it was return- 
ed, saying that they did not need it. Was this just? 

From early childhood we of the Sqjith were taught all work 
was honorable, and every act, even sweeping a room or picking 
up chips could be made as acceptable in God's sight as any 
service an archangel could perform. 

Each child had some special duty every day. The girl, as 
soon as she was able to hold a needle or know upon what finger 
to put the thimhle, was made to hem the towels, the table nap- 
kins, the tablecloths, the servants aprons, or to aid in drying the 
cut glass and silver, for "Ole Mis" always looked after this 
herself ; and the boys were given the care of some one animal to 
feed and care for, or some gates to lock and unlock, and no one 
else, not even the negro each child owned, was allowed to do this 
work for them. 

It is true the aristocrat of the Old South did not go into his 
blacksmith shop to shoe his horse, nor his wife into the kitchen 
to cook, or to the wash tub to wash, but it was not because they 
were ashamed or scorned to do it, but because there was no need 
for them to do these things. 

History has greatly maligned the old aristocrat of the South. 
He was not ''haughty," he was not "purse proud," and he 
did not consider himself "of finer clay" than any one else, as 
history has unjustly represented him. 

Aristocracy then was guaged by manners and morals and not 
by the size of the bank account, as I fear is too much the case 
today. Far more time was spent in cultivating the graces and 
charms of life than in amassing fortunes. They realized that 
"Manners are of more importance than money and laws" — for 
manners give form and color to our lives. They felt, as Tennyson 
said, "Manners are the fruit of lofty natures and noble minds." 

It will take us a long time to undo the falsehoods of history 
about the civilization of the Old South. 

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, ' " 



Who was the head of the plantation? Why, "Ole Mis' 
everyone on the plantation mnst obey "Ole Mis'; and "Ole 
Marster" said so and he obeyed "Ole Mis' " too. Her life was 
a long life of devotion — devotion to her God, devotion to her 
church — she was really the pillar of the church — devotion to 
her husband, to her children, to her kinfolks, to her neighbors 
and friends and to her servants. She could not be idle for she 
must ever be busy. 

''Ole Marster" could delegate many of his duties to the over- 
seer, while he entertained his guests. Pie would rise early in the 
morning, eat his breakfast — and such a breakfast ! Broiled 
chicken, stuffed sausage, spareribs, broiled ham and eggs, egg 
bread, corn muffins, hot rolls, beaten biscuits, baiter cakes or 
waffles with melted butter, syrup or honey and the half not told. 
I can taste those waffles now. i\Iy, how delicious they were ! Then, 
after smoking his Havana cigar, he would mount his saddle 
horse and ride over the plantation to see if the orders given the 
day before had been fully carried out. Then give the next day's 
orders, ride to a neighboring plantation, and return in time 
for an early dinner. Dinner was always at midday on the old 
plantation. If it were summer time, "Ole Marster" would lie 
down upon the wide veranda or in the spacious hall upon one 
of those old mahoganj^ sofas covered with black horse hair and 
a little darkey with a turkey tail fan or a peacock feather brush 
standing at his head to fan him and keep off flies, while he took 
his noon-day nap. If it were winter, he would go into his library 
and, before a large, open fireplace with whole logs of wood, he 
would discourse upon the topics of the day with visitors. 

There was no subject with which "Ole Marster" was not at 
home — whether politics, philosophy, religion, literature, poetry 
or art. "Ole Marster 's" sons for generations had been well 
educated and had a perfect familiarity with the classics — they 
could read Greek and Latin better than some of us can read 
English today. The best magazines of the day were upon his 
library table, and the latest books upon his library shelves. 

There were no public schools in the South before the Kecon- 
struetion period. The teachers on the plantations were tutors 
and governesses from the best colleges of the North and South, 
and in the private schools in the towns and cities were men and 
women whose education was beyond question. It was somewhat 
different in the Old Field Schools. There the teacher sometimes 
knew little beyond readin' and 'ritin' and 'rithmetic,' and was 

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considered very learned if he carried his scholars beyond "the 
rule of three." 

"Ole Marster" was rarely as religious as "Ole Mis' " and, 
if he wouldn't have family prayers, "Ole Mis'" would, but 
"Ole Marster" always had a reverence for religion and made 
his negroes attend church regularly and raised his children with 
a reverence for Sunday and holy things; 

''Ole Mis'" often put on a grandmother's cap when only 
thirty-five — what will the young grandmother of today say to 
that? Girls married at an early age, for a home was ready— 
"They never came out for they had never been in." 

How handsome "Ole Marster" was in his broadcloth suit 
and his silk beaver hat, his pump-soled boots, his high stock 
and collar, and his gold watch and chain with fob. Bill Arp 
said the aristocrat was known by the way he toyed with the 
fob upon his chain. 

How quaint and beautiful "Ole Mis' " was in her lace cap 
and satin bows ! I wish I had a black silk apron with pockets in 
it like my grandmother used to wear. What long deep pockets 
there used to be in the skirts — ^sometimes pockets on both sides! 

The entertainments would last for weeks at neighboring 
plantations ten or twenty miles apart. The old family carriage 
would come before the door, and the maids with the band boxes 
and the valets with the horse-hair trunks, with brass nail heads, 
would strap them behind and cover them with a leather curtain, 
then they would follow the young people in a spring wagon to 
the place of entertainment. I can see now just such a party — 
the old family carriage, high up on elliptical springs, the driver's 
seat above the top of the carriage, and the steps which unfolded 
down, and then folded up. 

The footman was there to let down the steps, the lovers were 
there to assist in mounting the steps, and Bill Arp said the 
true aristocrat was known not only by the size of her foot but 
by the graceful way she could manage her crinoline in moimting 
the steps of the carriage or descending therefrom. The lovers 
would mount their horses and act as a body-guard to the ap- 
pointed place. 

The girls ■ were dressed in dainty lawns and muslins — for 
no girl before her marriage, or until she had passed the marriage- 
able age, was allowed to wear velvet, silk, satin or lace. On their 
heads were the daintiest straw bonnets trimmed with pink roses 
— a bunch over each ear — and bows of pink ribbons to tie be- 

13 



neath the chin, and the dearest black net gloves and the daint- 
iest black slippers with low heels, or no heels at all. Their lovers 
would have thrown not only their cloalis. Sir Walter-like, but 
themselves in the mud rather than those dainty feet should be 
soiled by the mud. And it was considered dreadful if more 
than the tip of thai slipper should show. What would our grand- 
mothers' have said to these short dresses of today? 

Hunting parties, riding parties, fishing parties, boating part- 
ies, tournaments, charades, dances, and all sorts of joys never 
dreamed of by the young people of today — no sitting out in the 
moonlight on the lawns, no hiding in dark corners of the veran- 
das, no love-making after the old people had gone to bed, no 
automobile rides after dark, no dancing until daylight, and 
consequently runaway marriages were rarely heard of — and di- 
vorces were rarer. While the young men were on their fox 
hunts, the young girls would be employed with their embroidery 
— exquisite work they did! 

But, oh, the preparation for a wedding feast ! Weeks before- 
hand the plans were laid. '^ Hunter's round" had to be packed 
in spices, fruit cake to be made, raisins seeded, citron sliced, al- 
mond blanched, and later the cakes iced, pyramids of cakes gradu- 
ating in octagon shape from very large at the bottom to small at 
top and capped with a figure of the bride with her wedding 
veil and the groom in black broadcloth that had been bought from 
some confectionery shop. Little fence rails of icing around 
the different layers of cakes mounted one upon the other; bunches 
of grapes made of icing and covered with gold or silver leaf; 
roses made of white tarlatan and rimmed with icing. How we 
used to stand around — white children and black — and beg for 
the cones or the bowls that held the icing after the cakes were 
finished! I can see, now, the little smeared faces — for the own- 
ers unhesitatingly licked the bowls. Then the blane mange shaped 
in so many wonderful molds of pineapple, muskmelon, rabbits 
and roses. Then pig's feet jelly, so stiff, and cut into little 
squares just big enough for a mouthful — how delicious they were ! 

Then the day of the wedding! There was the making of the 
chicken salad and the slicing of the beef tongue and ham and the 
roasting of turkeys and the icing of the little cakes, the making 
of the wafers that fairly melted in the mouth, and then the sweet 
wafers rolled over and oh ! so crisp and delicious, and beaten bis- 
cuit by the bushel, the watermelon rind preserves cut into such 
exquisite shapes, fish and bird and flower, and shaded with an art- 

14 



ist's eye — 'the pride of the housekeeper, brought out to be seen 
if not to be eaten — the mango pickles, peach pickles, brandy 
peaches, artichoke pickles, cucumber pickles and cherry pickles! 
Then the boiled custard and the syllabub — we had no ice cream 
in those days for manufactured ice was unkno'wn. 

Every member of the family present had to take home some 
of the wedding cake, every young person must have some of 
the cake to dream on, and to name the corners of the room. 

The wedding guests lingered on for days and even weeks after 
the wedding was over, and the feasting continued until the last 
guest was gone. 

Those happy days are no more — gone, never to return, and the 
civilization as our grandmothers' lived it went with it. Happy 
are those whose memory holds these days in remembrance! My 
heartfelt sympathy goes out to those who shall never know of 
them! 

Veterans, didn't we have a good time when hog killing time 
came! "Weren't the pig tails and the crackling bread fine? Don't 
we feel sorry for these young people who never ate a roasted 
pig tail, or never spent a Christmas on the old plantation? 

Time was measured to Christmas, and three weeks before 
Christmas Day the wagons would go to the nearest city or town 
to lay in the Christmas supplies. Every negro man had to have 
a complete outfit from hat to shoes; every negro woman had to 
have the same from head handkerchief to shoes ; each negro child 
every article of clothing needed ; and warm shawls, and soft shoes, 
or some special gifts had to be bought for the old negroes too 
feeble to work. Then there were the barrels of apples, oranges, 
cocoanuts, boxes of almonds, Brazilnuts, English walnuts, hazel- 
nuts, raisins, citron and currants; then candies galore, kisses 
with adorable verses, sugar plums, lemon drops, gum drops, pep- 
permint, cinnamon and lemon candy by the quantity, and last but 
not least, some mysterious packages that were stowed in mother's 
large wardrobe, which mammy told us with a grave shake of the 
head were '^Laroes catch medloes," and for fear they might be 
animals that would bite us, we religiously let them alone, and 
forgot to ask about them when Christmas was over. 

How happy all were, white and black, as the cry of ' ' Christmas 
Gif ' " rang from one end to the other of the plantation, begin- 
ning early in the morning at the Big House and reaching every 
negro cabin — Christmas can never be the same again. 

As in family life when a child is disobedient and must be 

15 



punished, so in plantation life a disobedient or unruly negro 
had to be whipped or punished. It was natural that he should 
prefer to run away to escape a punishment he justly deserved 
and knew he would surely receive, especially tempted to run into 
a free state when incentives were offered to him to come and 
be transported by some underground way and hidden from the 
owner. It was perfectly natural also for him to give the most 
exaggerated reports of his treatment to willing listeners who 
really set a premium upon these exaggerations. 

"Aunt Cinthy," living in Florida where Northern tourists 
so often go for the winter, understood this. When reproached 
for saying what was absolutely false about the condition of the 
negro under slavery, she said : ' ' Honey, I am jest obleeged to zag- 
gerate a leetle about these things to edify the Northern tourists 
— they wouldn't give me any money if I didn't." 

The unnatural thing to the Southern planter was how edu- 
cated and intelligent men and women of the North could believe 
he would willingly injure his salable property, by hitching him 
to a plow, or allowing him to be cruelly beaten. To him there 
was no difference between hiding his negro worth $1,200, or 
more, arid hiding his pocket book which contained the same 
amount of money. This interference with his personal property 
was stealing no matter how viewed and it irritated him beyond 
measure. He knew perfectly well, should he retaliate by taking 
the horses of these abolitionists from their stables, or cows from 
their barns, or cattle from their fields, or furniture from their 
homes, or bank notes from their pockets, it would quickly have 
been a question of law and imprisonment. 

It has been estimated that 75,000 negroes were thus hidden 
from their owners before 1860. 

These fanatics took out "Personal Liberty Bills" contrary to 
the Constitution, to protect them on the plea that thpre was a 
Higher Power than the Constitution. Indeed, in their fanaticism, 
they publicly burned the Constitution and even said, if the Bible 
stood for slavery, better burn the Bible too. 

Now, there is no doubt that this was one of the many inter- 
ferences with Southern rights which forced Southern men to 
advocate secession in order to secure the rights guaranteed to 
them by the Constitution. Many think because this interference 
with the runaway slaves was one of the occasions of war that 
the war was fought to hold the slaves. Never was there a great- 
er mistake. Out of the 600,000 men in the Confederate army 

16 



400,000 never owned slaves. What were those men fighting for ? 
There were 315,000 slave-holders in the Northern army . Did 
they wish their slaves freed? Gen. Lee freed his slaves before 
the war began. Gen. Grant did not free his until the XIII 
Amendment passed, for Missouri's slaves were not intended to 
be freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. 

Southern men always believed in State Sovereignty, and 
Southern men always have stood by the Constitution. Fair- 
minded Northern men saw this and said the South had by the 
Constitution the right to secede and contended that the Abolition 
Party was only a minority party in the North, George Lunt of 
Boston said, "The majority of the men in the North felt out- 
raged at the actions of the Republican party at the time in in- 
terfering with the rights of the Southern States." 

Had the South prevailed, the Union would have been preserved 
and that too by the Constitution. Our negroes would have long 
ago been freed by gradual emancipation, as Southern slave- 
holders had already done, were desirous of doing still, and, had 
no interference come from the abolitionists, there would be now 
no race problems to adjust. 

Neither would there have been any need to change the Con- 
sitution except to legislate more strongly to enforce the laws 
against the slave trade as it w^as being still carried on by North- 
ern States contrary to law, and the right to free their own slaves, 
as was claimed by the slaveholders of the Southern States. State 
Sovereignty would still remain, while the inexpediency of seces- 
sion would have been proven by war. We would have, today, not 
only a grander and more glorious Union with no danger threat- 
ening us from a centralized government, but we would have a 
true democracy with State Eights stressed, as President Wilson 
advocates, a government formed of the people, hy the people 
and for the people — knowing no North, no South, no East, no 
West. ■ 

What Made the GiviHzation of the Old South? 

PART II. 

It was, undoubtedly, the institution of slavery. 

Why then did not the institution of slavery as it existed in 
Egypt, in Greece, in Rome, in Russia, in France, in the British 
Colonies, in New England and other Northern States produce the 
same civilization? That it did not, history has proven. There 

17 



must have been another reason, then, than the mere institution 
itself. 

The difference evidently was in the slave-holders of the South 
— men of that old Cavalier stock having the fear of God which 
gave them minds tuned to justice, and hearts trained to love, 
and pocketbooks opened to the needs of humanity, and I think 
the open pocketbooks had much to do with it. These men of the 
Old South lived with open-handed hospitality. One rarely heard 
of slaveholders in the South amassing great wealth like Stephen 
Girard of Philadelphia, or Peter Faneuil of Boston, Mass. The 
Southern slaveholders did not drive close bargains but were 
generous in all their dealings believing in the doctrine of "live 
and let live." Many slave-holders lived far beyond their means, 
and the surrender found them greatly in debt on account of 
liberality to their slaves. 

From Jamestown and Plymouth Rock flowed two mighty 
streams of influence — dissimilar and, for more than a hundred 
years, entirely separate — two types of men with distinct ideals 
of life. One loved England and the established church, and came 
simply to investigate the New World and its possibilities, and 
fully intended to return to England some day and had no desire 
to withdraw from the mother church. 

The other had no love for England and had a grievance against 
the established church, deliberately planned to make a new home 
in this country, and never desired or intended to return to the 
mother land or mother church. 

The backbone of the Virginia stream, or the Jamestown Colony, 
wa^ composed of men from leading families in England, gentle- 
men of the best English society, the landed gentry born to wealth 
and very loyal to their king. They were of the Cavalier stock. 
Many had lost their fortunes by high living, no doubt, and de- 
sired to come to this new world, expecting to find it a veritable 
Eldorado. "When they decided to remain, they patterned their 
social institutions after England, where they had been accustom- 
ed to large landed estates with tenants or servants. Coming 
with this old patriarchal idea of life, they became an agricul- 
tural people, making a diffusive civilization, settling on bur- 
gesses or plantations, having their indentured servants and liv- 
ing as in their old home. 

Not so with the New England stream or Plymouth Rock Colo- 
ny. They, too, were Englishmen, but did not come from the 
landed gentry, but from Puritan stock. They had a grievance 

18 



with England in regard to an interference with their liberty 
to worship God as they pleased. They did not love the king 
or the landed gentry, so they began to lay the foundations of 
new social institutions and to set up new altars of justice and 
religion, and thus really became autocrats in the administration 
of the law. 

The Jamestown Colony coming from English blood born to 
rule, their very instincts of life tended to develop political lead- 
ers and statesmen. 

Their life on the plantations under the institution of slavery 
in controlling their slaves, fitted them to control themselves and 
others, so we find for fifty out of seventy years of the early 
government of our Republic, Southern men filled the Presidential 
chair. Every man from the South was re-elected for a sec- 
ond term and two offered a third term, while not a President 
from other sections during this period ever held a second term. 
Thus was the ability of Southern men to control the affairs of 
State acknowledged by the people of the country. 

The Plymouth Rock Colony, settling in towns and cities, made 
a cohesive civilization and developed traders, manufacturers, 
and men fitted for commercial control of the country. Their 
nearness to each other in the cities and towns also developed 
literary instincts, and there the leading men of letters were found 
during those early days of the Republic. A literary atmosphere 
was created by close contact and Massachusetts particularly pro- 
duced many poets and philosophers, and the finest essay writers 
of that day came from New England. 

These people were a methodical, painstaking people, exact 
in all business calculations, in all state regulations. They in- 
stigated research, and undertook historical investigations and 
so we find not only the statistics regarding their affairs accurate- 
ly kept, but everything pertaining to their history recorded. 

The Jamestown Colony did not write their history or accurate- 
ly keep their statistics — hence we are suffering for this today, 
because our statistics have been prepared by those who did not 
laiow them as we did not know them ourselves, and we are often 
forced to go to the British Museum and other archives in Eng- 
land to find some of the history of those early days. 

"While the men of the South were eminently literary, they 
could not as in New England create a literary atmosphere, for 
they lived miles apart and rarely had any opportunity to meet in 
groups to discuss literary topics. They had the ability to write 

19 



books, and tliey wrote much for local papers, but there was no 
need to print books for the money that would come to them 
from the printing. 

The South produced great orators, and great political states- 
men whose writings have come down in the political history 
of our country, excelled by no other section. 

The Jamestown Colony thought little of the value of statis- 
tics. They were big-hearted, open-handed, free livers, given to 
hospitality^, and as was said before, often lived far beyond their 
means. The care of their slaves was always a very heavy ex- 
pense. The institution of slavery brought on an immunity from 
drudgery and gave leisure for the cultivation of the mind and 
manners. It made gentlemen and gentlewomen. There was 
little attempt at grandeur or display — a beautiful simplicity was 
the charm of the life of the Old South. There was no need to 
study ethics, it was inborn in white and black. While there 
were different degrees of wealth — one man owning more slaves 
than another, or men of business affairs in the towns and cities 
owning few or no slaves, yet there was little difference in social 
standing— the line being dra-v\m on education, manners and 
morals more than on the family tree and the pocketbook. Intel- 
lectual advantages and manners were to them of paramount 
importance. Character always counted for more than blood or 
money. And sneer as one may at the chivalry of the Old South, 
it was that which sweetened Southern life. Southern men were 
not only the champions of the women of their own households, 
but the protectors of all women. 

Now, while the Plymouth Rock Colony also produced gentle- 
men and gentlewomen, they were of a different type. While 
at heart they may have been just as true, they lacked the social 
graces, and charming manners that the civilization of the Old 
South produced. 

This dift'erence came out very strikingly when Thomas Jeffer- 
son and John Adams were at the same time representatives from 
the United States Government in France. They had with them 
their daughters, Martha Jefferson and Abigail Adams — both well 
educated young women. Queen Marie Antoinette said that Mar- 
tha Jefferson had the most exquisitely gracious manners she 
had ever seen in any yoimg girl, and could be at home in any 
royal court; while the prim manners of Abigail Adams, the lit- 
tle New England maid, oppressed her. 

The Jamestown settlers and their descendants, while not Puri- 

20 



tanical in their religion, were religious. While Jonathan Ed- 
wards was preaching "Hell Torments" from a New England 
pulpit, the churchmen in Virginia were preaching "The love of 
God ta sinful dying men. ' ' 

Read that tablet on Old Cape Henry Lighthouse commemo- 
rating the planting of the Cross by THIRTY members of that 
Jamestown Colony, April 26, 1607. 

Read Richard Crashaw's Prayer, that was used in the daily 
service at Jamestown, in which is found: 

"Arm us against difficulties, and strengthen us against base 
thoughts and temptations. Give us faith, wisdom and constancy 
in thy service." 

Read how the Rev. Robert Hunt held daily services under 
the stretched sails of one of those first three vessels that brought 
over this first permanent English Colony. 

Go to Jamestown Island today and see the remains of that old 
church built there. Read the history of that church and see in 
Virginia churches today the remains of the communion service 
used there. 

Read of that first Fast Day, and that first Thanksgiving Day 
before even the Pilgrim Fathers had left England. 

Read of the missionary work of Alexander Whitaker, the first 
Protestant missionary to American Indians. 

Yes, they were religious, but they believed in a religion of 
joy and happiness and never believed in a religion that carrie<I 
a long and sanctimonious face. 

The Plj^mouth Rock Colony were Puritans in word and deed. 
They recognized no church, no creed, no king by divine right. 
They said they were only responsible to God and to their own 
consciences. Life with them was simply a preparation for 
death, but their liberty became intolerance, and having been 
persecuted they also began to persecute. They allowed no Christ- 
mas festivities, no May Day joys, and their children were actual- 
ly punished for being merry. A man was even forbidden to 
kiss his wife on Sunday. Nathaniel Hawthorne once said, "Let 
us thank God for such ancestors, but let us also thank Him that 
each generation brings us one step farther on in the march of 
ages. ' ' 

The Cavaliers and their descendants and the men who settled 
the Southern colonies, into whose blood came that of the Irish, 
the Scotch, the Welsh, the French Huguenots, made up a people 
who have no superiors in the world — and today, after all these 

21 



years, the purest ADgio Saxon blood out of rural England is to 
be found in the Southern States, and Englishmen have testified 
that the purest English is spoken not in New England but in 
the Southern States. 

The Puritans and their descendants and the other colonies 
that settled the North, into whose blood came the Dutch, the 
Swedes, the- Danes, the Quakers, made a sturdy race, whose 
strength of character and business qualifications have always 
made them prominent as men of large affairs in the business 
world, and has given them great prominence in religious activi- 
ties and ability in financing large undertakings. 

"While it is written that Kobert Morris, of Pennsylvania, 
financed the Revolution, we must not forget that Thomas Nel- 
son, of Virginia, borrowed on his own credit, $2,000,000 for the 
Continental Congress and this money was never returned to him. 

By the way, it was the American Revolution that brought the 
Cavalier and Puritan with their descendants close together to 
form one deep, swift current of national life, and the difference 
in Puritan and Cavalier blood was forgotten in the one mighty 
united effort to gain American independence. 

When Massachusetts suffered, every Southern colony suffered 
with her and quickly came to aid her. George jMason, of Vir- 
ginia, wrote to his children to go in deep mourning when the 
services were held to pray for the relief of Massachusetts. When 
the Boston Port Bill passed, every one of the Southern colonies 
responded with aid to Massachusetts;. 

At the time of the Revolution, ev^ry colony was a slave hold- 
ing colony. There really was no question of abolition of slavery 
and no sectional feeling until the time of the Missouri Com- 
promise in 1820, which drew attention to the political power 
of the slave holding states. 

Ho^v did African slavery enter the Southern Colonies f 

I wish every one of you would read Mrs. Sophie Lea's "Synop- 
tical Review of Slavery" — She was State Historian of Ken- 
tucky, U. D. C. and gives some fine statistics of the institution 
of slavery. Read also Prof. Bingham 's articles regarding slavery, 
and Cobb's "Law of Slavery," and what Thomas Nelson Page 
says, in his "Old South." 

Who was most responsible for the bringing over of African 
slaves — the North or the South? 

How glad I am to right a wrong against IMassachusetts ! It 
was a Dutch vessel, in 1619, sailing the English flag that sold 

22 



to the Jamestown Colony the first twenty "NEGAKS," as John 
Eolfe called them. This was one year before the Mayflower set 
sail from England, so jMassachusetts cannot be blamed for that. 
That they were sold and not indentured is proven beyond doubt 
from authorities incontrovertible — such authority as George Ban- 
croft, (Vol. 1, p. 125) America's greatest historian; and Lyon 
Gardiner Tyler, Virginia's authority on Colonial history. 

The strongest testimony is a paper in the possession of the 
descendants of Gov. Yeardley who was one of the Jamesto^vn 
Colony to buy these Africans. He says they were bought in a 
spirit of humanity with no thought of later commercial value. 
These creatures were suffering horribh^ on that slave ship and the 
Jamestown settlers felt they must be relieved, so bought them, 
and then tried to civilize them by putting them to work. 

If African slavery was a sin, the Spaniards and English were 
the sinners. It is true the slave trade in the United States was 
begun by Massachusetts, and in the main carried on by her, not 
as a private enterprise, but by the authority of the Plymouth 
Rock Colony (Colonial Entry Book, A^ol. IV., p. 724.) 

The statute of establishing perpetual slavery was adopted 
by Massachusetts, Dec, 1641 (Mass. Historical Coll. VIII., p. 
231.) 

The slave ship DESIRE sailed from Marblehead, Mass., and 
was the first to sail from any English colony in America to 
capture Africans. 

The first state to legislate in favor of the slave trade was 
Massachusetts, 

The first state to urge a fugitive slave law was Massachusetts. 
(Moore's History of Slavery.) 

The last state to legislate against the slave trade was Massa- 
chusetts. 

The last slave ship to sail from the United States was the 
NIGHTINGALE from Massachusetts in 1861. She secured a 
cargo of 900 Africans, and was captured by the SARATOGA 
under Captain Guthrie, April 21, 1861, after Fort Sumter had 
been fired on. There is no record that any punishment followed 
this violation of this law. 

The slave trade did not cease with the abolition of slavery in 
New England and did not cease when the U. S. made it contrary 
to law in 1807. (Weeden's History, Vol. II., p. 835.) 

Massachusetts sold, but never freed her slaves. 



23 



Augustus Hemmenway, of Boston, died in 1870, leaving to 
his children in his will, slaves then living in Cuba. 

Between 1859 and 1860, 85 slave ships from New York brought 
over annually thirty to sixty thousand Africans who were sold 
to Brazil — no record is given of punishment by law that fol- 
lowed. (Cyclopedia of Political Economy, Vol. III., p. 733.) 

During those same years 75 slave ships sailed from other North- 
ern ports. 

''The Cradle of Liberty" in Boston, Faneuil Hall, was built 
by Peter Faneuil, its owner, from slave trade money. 

Girard College, in Philadelphia, was built by Stephen Girard 
with money made by African slaves on a Louisiana plantation. 

THE WANDERER was sent to Georgia in 1858 and 1859 
by the New York Yacht Club with a cargo of slaves. It landed 
first at Savannah and then at Brunswick, and the slaves were 
sold. 

Henry R. Jackson a lawyer of Savannah tried to convict all 
Georgians for buying these slaves or having any part in violating 
the law but failed to find proof to convict. 

THE CLOTILDE sailed from Mobile, Ala., to win a wager 
made by Capt. Timothy Meaher of Maine, her oA\Tier, that the 
law could be violated in the South and African slaves could be 
landed and sold on Southern soil and not be punished. The 
cargo did sail from Mobile, return and land, but the slaves were 
not allowed to be sold, the scheme thus proving to the owner 
of the vessel a great financial loss. 

Slavery was abolished in the Northern Colonies from no con- 
scientious scruples, but simply because the slave labor was un- 
profitable (Fiske's Critical Period of American History, p. 73.) 

There were five slave markets in the United States, not one 
built by Southern slaveholders: One in Boston, 1712; one in 
New York, 1711 ; one near Cincinnati, Ohio ; one in St. Augus- 
tine by Spaniards; one in New Orleans by Spaniards. (See Law 
of Slavery by T. R. R. Cobb.) There is a slave market photo- 
graphed in Louisville, Ga., and so marked, but the oldest citizens 
testify it was simply a place of trade and not built to contain 
a slave block. This, possibly, is true of other places so marked 
in the South in order to attract the attention of Northern tourists. 

Southern planters never, if it could be avoided, allowed their 
slaves to be sold at public outcry. It only happened when a man 
died without a will — then members of the family tried to buy 
the slaves in by families. 

24 



The only colony to forbid slaves was Georgia. 

The first state to legislate against the slave trade was Geor- 
gia. 

The first bill to allow a slaveholder to free his slaves was by 
Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia. 

Jefferson urged in the Declaration of Independence that the 
slave trade be forbidden. John Adams, of Massachusetts, urged 
that clause be omitted. 

The only state that made it a felony to buy a slave was Vir- 
ginia. 

Thomas Jefferson insisted that Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Mich- 
igan, and Wisconsin should not be slave states — and yet Vir- 
ginia, a slave state, gave this territory. 

A committee of five Virginians— Jefferson, Pendleton, Wythe, 
Mason and Thomas Lee — was appointed to revise the laws and 
prepare all slaveholders in the state for the gradual emancipa- 
tion of their slaves. This law said all children born after the 
passage of the Act should be free, but must remain with their 
mothers imtil old enough to be self-supporting. Thirty-two times 
Virginia legislated against slavery. 

Thomas Jefferson urged that all slaveholders free their slaves 
by gradual emancipation as soon as possible, for by the Missouri 
Compromise, where a State's right was interfered with by other 
states, he saw plainly that the day might come when sudden 
emancipation would take place, and he said ' 'human nature shud- 
dered at the prospect of it," but he thanked God he would not 
be alive to see it. 

George Washington urged the gradual emancipation of his 
slaves and. freed them by his will, and told Thomas Jefferson he 
wished all slaves could be freed. 

George Mason believed in emancipation of his slaves and freed 
them. 

John Randolph of Roanoke freed his slaves and bought terri- 
tory in Ohio to place them after freedom. Zanesville, Ohio, 
where that large college for negroes is situated is in that territory. 

Henry Clay urged the gradual emancipation of the slaves. 

Gen. Lee and his mother believed in gradual emancipation, 
and practiced it and so did many slaveholders at the South. 
Hundred of thousands of slaves had been freed in the South be- 
fore 1820. 

Jefferson Davis when in the U. S. Senate, urged that a plan 
be made for emancipation that would be best for the slaveholders 

25 



and the slave. This was why Southern men were so insistent 
about securing more slave territory to relieve the congested con- 
dition of the slave states that they might prepare the slaves as 
freed for their future government. 

Abraham Lincoln said gradual emancipation wa.s the best 
plan, and the North should not criticize too severely the South- 
ern brethren for tardiness in this matter. 

There were in the United States at one time 130 abolition so- 
cieties — 106 were in the South — and % of the members of all 
were Southern slaveholders. 

The Abolition Crusade which began at the time of the IMis- 
souri Compromise in 1820, and w^hich reached an intense pitch 
in 1839, caused Southern men to withdraw membership in aboli- 
tion societies. 

The South has suffered greatly from misrepresentations in 
regard to the institution of slavery. History has grossly mal- 
igned, not only the institution, but the slaveholder. Cruelty 
as practiced in East Indies, the Barbadoes and elsewhere have 
been repeated and located in the South. One traveler declared 
he saw in his travels a negro in a cage exposed to wild birds and 
his eyes literally pecked out' — and encyclopoedias and historians 
have located it in South Carolina. In the first place there are 
no wild birds in South Carolina to have done the pecking, and 
in the second place no Southern slaveholder would have stood 
for this for a moment. 

The slaveholder has been accused of cruelty in separating 
mother and child on the slave block. 

The selling of slaves in the South did not separate mother and 
child as often or with such cruelty as did the slave trafic in 
Africa — as did the hiding of the fugitive slave from their own- 
ers — as did the "Exodus Order" in Reconstruction days. 

Southern States had very rigid laws along this line. In Lousi- 
ana, if a slaveholder separated mother and child, he must pay 
$1,000 and give up six of his slaves. Other states also had bind- 
ing laws. We find, in the Massachusetts Continental Jour- 
nal, March 1, 1778, an advertisement of a slave mother to be 
sold ' ' with or without her six months ' old child. ' ' 

The Southern slaveholder has been accused of being responsi- 
ble for the mulattoes in the South. The increase in mulattoes 
since freedom has been tenfold. There was no such thing as 
chattel slavery in the South. 

"White slavery in the North today is responsible for far more 

26 



evils than ever came from the institution of slavery in the South. 
The Southern planter has been accused of cruelty to his slaves 
— no cruelty on the part of any overseer can compare to that 
of the middle passage on the slave ships, where, on that long- 
voyage, they were huddled as standing cattle and suffered from 
hunger and thirst so that they died by the hundreds. 

Let it be remembered that no Southern man ever owned a 
slave ship. No Southern man ever commanded a slave ship. 
No Southern man ever went to Africa for slaves. 

A Pittsburg, Pa., editor said, after hearing in Philadelphia 
a lecture on "The South of Yesterday": 

"A sweet faced old lady delivered an address at the Bellevue 
Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. She talked of the slaves of 
ante-bellum days to impress upon the younger generation of the 
South the fact that the slaves w^ere well treated. The address 
was intended to try to obliterate sectional feeling. It is of im- 
portance to us today, for it affords contrast. 

As she spoke, the writer felt it justified the question : Are the 
white slaves today— those in industrial bondage — as well cared 
for as were the black slaves before the war? Is the industrial 
slave as well fed, as well clothed, as well housed as these black 
slaves were by their masters? Are the industrial slaves that 
work in the mills and mines and the sweat shops of today as 
well cared for as were the slaves of the South who worked in 
the field? 

And have thousands of the workingmen of Western Pennsyl- 
vania, after twenty-five years of labor, any more to show than 
the black slave after a corresponding term of service?" 

Gen. Lee said, "There was no doubt that the blacks were 
immeasurably better off here than they were in Africa— morally, 
physically and socially." He thought the freeing of them should 
be left in God's hands and not be settled by tempestuous con- 
troversy. 

The South has been vilified for not educating the negro in 
the days of slavery. 

The South was giving to the negro the best possible educa- 
tion—that education that fitted him for the workshop, the field, 
the church, the kitchen, the nursery, the home. This was an 
education that taught the negro self-control, obedience and per- 
severance—yes, taught him to realize his weaknesses and how 
to grow stronger for the battle of life. The institution of slave- 
ry as it was in the South, so far from degrading the negro, was 
fast elevating him above his nature and his race. 

27 



We dared not teach the negroes on the plantations to read 
lest men of the John Brown type would urge them to rise, burn 
and kill our men, women and children on the plantation. Nat 
Turner, a free negro, did learn to read and was responsible 
for that insurrection in 1836 that resulted in the murder of 
sixty whites. 

No higher compliment was ever paid the institution of slavery 
than that by the North, which was willing to make the negro its 
social and political equal after two hundred years of civiliza- 
tion under Southern Christianizing influence. Never has it been 
recorded in history such rapid civilization from savagery to 
Christian citizenship. 

Charles E. Stowe said, "There must have been something in 
the institution of slavery of value to have produced such a beauti- 
ful Christian character as Uncle Tom" in his mother's book. 

The South suffered under injustice and false representation 
in many, many ways. 

In 1845, Southern Baptists were forced to withdraw from the 
Northern Baptists because they refused to accept a Southern 
slaveholder as a missionary. 

The Southern Methodists, in 1844, were forced to separate 
because Bishop Andrews was not to be allowed to remain a 
Bishop as he had married a widow who o^vned slaves. 

The Southern Presbyterians were forced to separate because 
a slaveholder was not allowed to partake of the communion. 

The Episcopal Church continued united, but Bishop Elliott, 
of Georgia, in 1860, testified the church had suffered keenly from 
the misrepresentations of Northern brethren. He said: 

"It is well for Christians and philanthropists to consider 
whether by their interference with the institution of slavery 
they may not be checking and impeding a work which is mani- 
festly Providential. "What if for ten generations the negroes 
have been slaves, if, through that Providence, they have been 
trained for future glory and independence, and for immortality?" 

The black man ought to thank the institution of slavery — the 
easiest road that any slave people have ever passed from savagery 
to civilization with the kindest and most humane masters. 
Hundreds of thousands of the slaves in 1865 were professing 
Christians and many were partaking of the communion in the 
church of their masters. 

All that the South wishes is justice. This she has never had. 
In all of her history she has never been an invader but a de- 
fender of rights. 

28 



Jolin C. Calhoun said: "When did the South ever place her 
hand on the North? When did she ever interfere with her 
peculiar institutions? When did she ever aim a blow at her 
peace and security? 

When did she ever demand more than naked, sheer justice of 
the Union — " and this is all that the South asks for now. 

How Was the Civilization of the Old South 
Destroyed? 

PART III. 

The XIII. Amendment in 1865 set free in the midst of their 
former owners nearly 6,000.000 slaves, totally unprepared for 
freedom and while a factor it was not the greatest factor in de- 
stroying the civilization of the South. The men of the South- 
ern army returned to their desolated homes, having taken the 
oath of allegiance in good faith, and were ready to accept, with- 
out a murmur, this amendment when it came. \ 

The planters began to parcel out their land and start their 
negroes in life as farm tenants. Their affection and interest in 
their negroes would not only have assured their protection but 
would have caused their being fed until self-supporting, and 
other Southern men would have also adjusted themselves to new 
conditions. Had they then been left untrammelled, matters 
would have been quickly adjusted. There might have been some 
friction, but far less than followed under reconstruction policies. 
The old masters would have helped their faithful negroes to buy 
homes and to prepare themselves for freedom. The negroes had 
confidence in their owners and would not have questioned their 
advice. They could have made better terms under these condi- 
tions than were made by false friends imder the Freedman's 
Bureau. 

The men of the South would not have given them civil or 
political rights until they were prepared for them. They would 
not have~given them social equality, for this the negro did not 
desire, until false friends from the North urged it upon them as 
a right, and even then, nor now, do the better class of negroes 
desire it. The negroes would have been given school opportuni- 
ties and an education befitting the race would have been given 
to them. They would not have been given instruction in Greek 
and Latin and higher mathematics, except to those desiring to 
teach and to preach, but the majority would have been prepared 
for life along industrial lines. 

29 



The North, at this time, blundered greatly by allowing Thad 
Stevens and his Committee to issue the "Exodus Order" which 
separated the negroes from their old owners, and to place in the 
South the Freedman's Bureau with the promise of ''forty acres 
and a mule ' ' — encouraging shif tlessness ! 

This unwise policy was the real blow aimed at the overthrow of 
the civilization of the Old South. The men of the South were then 
put under military discipline which actually tied their hands and 
only the Ku Klux, the "Chivalry of the Old South," could break 
these bonds that fettered them. 

The negroes began rapidly to leave their homes, because they 
had been told that they would be kept in slavery still if they 
did not. Strange negroes-j&ame in their stead and the trouble 
began — for, by the Freedman's Bureau, the part of the negro 
was always taken against the whites, whether right or wrong. 
Men and women who never had done menial work now had 
to learn, rather than contend with impertinent negroes they 
had no power to punish. Many had no money to pay for help, 
and the negroes had no desire to work. They were waiting for 
some one to support them. 

The South blundered in allowing the North to supply the 
teachers for the negro schools. These teachers should have been 
the white people or the negroes of the South. 

"School marms" came dow^n, impressed with the missionary 
spirit, to help these "poor benighted blacks," to keep them from 
being dowTitrodden and imposed upon, and they gave to them 
a taste of social equality which spoiled them for service in South- 
ern homes. 

One of these teachers invited "Aunt Mandy," calling her Mrs. 
Brown, to come in to sit with her, saying she was lonely. 

"Are you going?" asked "Ole Mis' ". 

' ' Law, ' Ole Mis ' ', you know I aint goin ' ! Them white folks 
that wants me to set with them aint the white folks I wants to 
set with." 

This was the thought of the aristocratic negro of the Old 
South. 

Mammy, being told that Pres. Koosevelt had invited Booker 
Washington to lunch with him, said, 

"Surely Booker Washington had better manners than to set 
down to the white folks' table?" 

''No, he didn't. Mammy, he went in and took lunch with Mr. 
Roosevelt. ' ' 

■ ^ 30 



"Oh! I am 'shamed of Booker Washington — his mammy ought 
to have taught him better manners than that." 

"But, Mammy, suppose it had been you, and Pres, Koosevelt 
had insisted upon it, what would you have said?" 

"Oh! I would have said, 'Scuse me, Mars Roosevelt, I ain't 
hongry. ' ' 

And that is just the answer a Southern negro aristrocrat would 
have made. They had an aristocracy just as marked as the 
whites had, and this aristocracy the whites respected. 

Rena w^as asked to take dinner at the University where her 
daughter received her diploma. She accepted the invitation but 
when she found that she was to sit at the table with the white 
members of the faculty, she slipped out of the room, saying 
"My little nigger can eat with white folks but I can't." 

The helplessness of the negro at the time of freedom was pa- 
thetic. He was a little child in his dependence. He had no need 
for money, for he once had supplied to him the things money 
would buy for his needs, so when he received his money for 
wages he spent it as a child. 

The first driver my father was forced to hire, a year after 
the surrender, had to be furnished a suit of clothes and hat and 
shoes before he was presentable on the carriage seat. Yet when 
he was paid his first month's wages of $10, $8 was spent for an 
accordion and the remaining $2 for fire crackers, which like a 
child he quickly fired. 

A Northern man who bought one of the Southern plantations 
noticed an old negro man helping himself to fire wood. He asked 
him one day where he bought his wood. 

"It's jest this way," he answered, "My pa was coachman at 
the Big House over there, and he pa and he pa — so there's no 
need for one gentleman to ax another gentleman whar he gits 
his wood." "Ole Marster" had always given his wood so this 
old negro had no idea he was stealing. 

That wood was his by right of service from his family was 
the teaching of the carpetbaggers after the war. To steal from 
a negro was a great sin, they said, but no sin to steal from 
white people for all they had the negroes made. The South- 
ern people suffered grievously from this teaching. They saw 
with real distress how, under fals6 teaching, the negroes were 
being alienated from them and being harmed, not helped. The 
negroes under false advisers resented any interference from 
Southern whites, and the situation became terrible — far worse 

31 



than is pictured in "The Birth of a Nation," horrible as that 
is. It was not only a time of real oppression, but also a time of 
repression, suppression and fearful humiliation. The South lost 
$2,000,000,000 by loss of slaves together with confiscated and 
destroyed property. The South was also left with a bonded war 
debt of $300,000,000. 

It is really refreshing to realize, even at this late day, that 
some of the leading negro leaders are conscious of the mistakes 
that have been made and are willing to acknowledge it. 

A leader named Wilkins, at Little Rock, Ark., in 1915, said 
on Emancipation Day : 

"We are foolish for celebrating an event which has meant 
nothing to us but humiliation, persecution, alienation, degrada- 
tion, obloquy, scorn, and contempt. 

"We are celebrating a day that never took place and you know 
it as well as I do. 

But some things did take place on that day. Our Southern 
white friends fed us, clothed us, and administered to us. Let us 
not forget that, but rather celebrate that. Eemember now, those 
of you who think Lincoln's Proclamation set us free, that if 
it did, it was our white friends that kept us from starving." 

Pres. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation never freed the 
negro nor did Lincoln expect it to. It was a political move against 
the seceding states to force men at the North to re-enlist, and in 
the hope that it would make Southern men return to protect their 
families from negro insurrection and thus end the war, and to 
induce foreign nations to refuse to acknowledge the Confederacy. 

Not a negro in the states that did not secede was freed by 
Lincoln's Proclamation and it had no effect even in the South as 
it was unconstitutional and Lincoln knew it. Many in the North 
resented it, and Lincoln was imhappy over the situation as 
Lamon testified. The negroes were freed by an amendment of- 
fered by a Southern man and did not become a law until after 
Lincoln's death. It really is a farce for negroes to celebrate 
Emancipation Day. 

By the freedom of the slaves and the estrangements that fol- 
lowed between them and their former owners the civilization 
of the Old South gradually passed away. 

Mark Twain said, "The eight years in America, 1860 — 1868, 
uprooted an institution centuries old, and wrought so profoundly 
upon the national character of the people that the influence will 

32 



be felt for two or three generations. ' ' Mark Twain was a South- 
ern man and knew what he was talking about. 

Chas. E. Stowe, the son of Harriet Beecher Stowe, said: "If 
you ask me if the slaves were better off under the institution 
of slavery than they are under freedom, I must, in candor, answer 
that some were better off for they were not fit for freedom. ' ' 

Again he said, ' 'If slavery was an unutterably evil institution, 
how can you account for the faithfulness of the negroes on the 
plantations when the men were at the front, and no act of viol- 
ence known among them?" 

Senator Vance said, "The negro has made more progress in 
one hundred years as a Southern slave than in all the three 
thousand years intervening from his creation until his landing 
on these shores." (Dowd's Life of Vance, p. 253.) 

Gen. Armstrong, a Northern man, said: ""While slavery in the 
South was called the sum of all villainies, it became the great- 
est missionary enterprise of the century." 

When the slaves w^ere freed, we turned them over to the North 
an orderly, fairly industrious race, practically without disease 
or crime, and the North felt they were worthy of social and 
political equality, and so legislated. 

The negroes then were one-half the population of the South. 
The statistics in regard to illiteracy at the South has greatly 
vilified the South because in the statistics were the 6,000,000 
slaves who, with few exceptions, could read or write. 

At the surrender, the South had nothing but the ground upon 
which to stand, and yet began to be heavily taxed to educate this 
mass of blacks as well as the w^hites. Justice has never been 
given the South for what she did at this time and what she is 
still doing. 

Bead Winthrop Talbot's article in December North American 
Review^, (1915) and see what part of the coimtry has the brand 
of illiteracy today. It will be found that the New England 
States, the Middle States, and the Northern States are the suf- 
ferers under present statistics regarding illiteracy. 

The South, according to the statistics of 1911, had spent on 
the negro $120,000,000 for education. (Report of Dr. Harris, 
Commissioner of Education.) That sum has largely increased 
in the six years that have followed. 

AVliat progress has the negro made in those fifty years? He 
has as a race, note that I say as a race, become disorderly, idle, 
vicious and diseased. There are three times more criminals 

33 



among them today than among the uneducated native whites; 
one-half more criminals than among the foreign whites, and %o 
of the negro criminals are under thirty years of age — so slavery 
can in no wise be held responsible for that. 

When such abuse comes from the North about lynching and 
crimes in the South, do they realize that only %o of the popu- 
lation of the North is negro, while more than % in the South 
is negro, and in many localities in the South it is %o negro. 
Isn't it radically unfair to bring the charges upon violation of 
mob law in Georgia — and I am not defending mob law — I think 
it awful wherever found — when they never seem to realize that 
the home of mob law was in New England and other Northern 
States ? 

Was not Garrison dragged by a mob in the streets of Boston? 

Did not New Englanders mob officers of the National Govern- 
ment for trying to enforce the law? 

Wasn't Lovejoy put to death by a mob in Boston? 

Did not New Yorkers massacre men, women and children and 
burn 19 negroes ? Was a negro ever burned in a Southern State ? 

Was not Philadelphia the home of mobs at one time? 

Did not a mob burn an orphanage in Philadelphia and kill 
women and children? 

Was not a negro chained and burned at Wilmington, Dela- 
ware ? 

Was not a negro hanged by a mob before the court-house door 
at Urbana, Ohio? 

Did not a mob with dynamite bombs defy the police in Chicago 
and not one offender brought to justice? 

Will those newspapers so unjust to Georgia, and to the South 
as a whole, look into those mobs at Akron and Springfield, Ohio ; 
Danville and Springfield, Illinois; Evansville and Rockport, 
Indiana; and Coatsville, Pennsylvania, and in states much nearer 
to them than Georgia ? Will they not inquire into statistics and 
truthfully find out, if they are honest enough to admit it, that 
there have been more mobs proportionally to negro population 
in the North than in the South, and most of the violation of mob 
law is because of the negro ! 

They ask continually, "What's the matter with Georgia?" I 
can tell them the matter, for I am a Georgian. Georgia is sur- 
passing those states so rapidly in prosperity that the eye of politi- 
cal jealousy is fastened on her. 

The South is willing to be just and give to all justice, but she 

34 



will ever resent injustice — and the cry against the South in 
regard to this matter is gross injustice. The Chicago Tribune 
said, "The South is a region of illiteracy, blatant self righteous- 
ness, and unless new blood is infused in the South it mil con- 
tinue to be a menace to the American Nation." My, where did 
this editor come from ? He must be related to Medill of Chicago, 
who Lincoln said caused him to declare war, by arming Fort 
Sumter. There are some in the North who wish to deprive 
the South of the right to manage any of her o'^^ti affairs. 

Pres. "Wilson sees a great danger to the South coming from 
this tendency to a centralized government and stands squarely 
for State Rights. The South, under present conditions, cannot 
afford to surrender her state rights. If she should, a worse than 
Reconstruction Period would follow, and no Ku Klux can protect 
her. 

The North disfranchised the illiterate Indians, the illiterate 
yellow man, the illiterate negroes in her midst before the war, 
5'et, after the war, the North enfranchised 6,000,000 illiterate 
negroes in the South. This was not just. 

Has the negro as a race been benefitted by freedom ? Now un- 
derstand I said as a race. Unhesitatingly, no ! 

While the educated negro has made rapid progress and some 
have accomplished great things for which they deserve high com- 
mendation; some have accumulated much property; some have 
built good homes ; some are well to do ; some have made good 
citizens and some have made good teachers, good preachers, good 
physicians, good dentists, good dressmakers — and some are train- 
ing their children well — but, take them as a race, they are un- 
doubtedly weaker today physically, morally and religiously. 
The negroes are realizing this and are grieving over it. They 
are fast decreasing as a race while the white is fast increasing. 

The white race on the other hand is decidedly better off since 
freedom ; it is the negro which has suffered from sudden emanci- 
pation. The South has never been so prosperous as it is today, 
showing what an incubus slavery was upon the slaveholder. 

Just as in 1820 the eyes of political jealousy were turned upon 
the Slave States because of their prosperity and prominence in 
the control of the affairs of the government, and State Rights 
were aimed at by the Missouri Compromise, so today the eyes 
of political jealousy are again turned to the South because of its 
unparalleled prosperity and prominence in government affairs, 
and a combined effort is being made to destroy State Rights, 

35 



and the surprise is that many Southern men and women are 
abetting the movement. 

We of the South — as much as we have been forced to bear 
from the impertinent and shiftless negro of freedom — can never 
and must never forget the faithful negroes of slavery. In my 
volume of "Tributes to Faithful Slaves" I have some very touch- 
ing incidents that have come under my own personal observa- 
tion. 

I was in Lexington, Va., and, on entering the gate of the 
cemetery, I saw a monument to DAVID McKINLY erected by 
PETER FLEMING, HIS FORMER SLAVE. Peter returned 
to his old home, after many years, to find his old master dead, 
and the family not able to put a monument over him, so he asked 
permission of the family to order a monument and to pay for it 
himself. 

Near to Stonewall Jackson's monument in the same cemetery 
in a lot the master and slave sleep side by side, "awaiting the 
Resurrection. ' ' 

"To the memory of SAMUEL HAYS in loving remembrance 
for faithful service this stone is erected by the d&sire of his 
master. ' ' 

In another lot side by side with her mistress ' ' ELIZA SMITH 
A FAITHFUL SERVANT" sleeps. 

When at Petersburg, Va., in the Old Blanford Cemetery, I 
saw there another monument among the whites erected to ''A 
BELOVED OLD MAMMY." 

An old ex-slave was found in Washington City hunting for 
"Mars Sherman" because "Mis Clio, his "Mistis, " had told 
liim to thank Gen. Sherman for not burning her home at Carters- 
ville, Ga. 

"Mis' Clio," from Augusta, Ga., had been Gen. Sherman's 
sweetheart when he was at West Point. When the old negro 
heard that Sherman had been dead many years, he burst into 
tears, saying, "I promised "Mis' Clio to thank him." 

As long as one of the old regime lived they were always so 
polite, so humble, so proud, so loyal, so true. Few there are 
that still remain. 

Let us then the children and grandchildren of the men who 
wore the gray stretch out a kindly hand to the children and 
grandchildren of those who were the faithful protectors of our 
mothers and grandmothers in the days that tried men's souls, 
and make them to understand that we want them in the South, 

36 



and that the South' is their logical home, and that understand- 
ing each other as we do, we can work for the things that are best 
for both races. 

They are fast realizing that they cannot accomplish anything 
worth while without the sympathy and co-operation of the white 
people of the South. The faithfulness of their forefathers has 
never been surpassed in the annals of servitude, and those faith- 
ful ones had no part in bringing about the present state of affairs. 

The good will between the races white and black in the South 
must be rebuilt upon the foundation laid in the days of slavery. 
This foundation was severely shaken by the stonn that beat 
upon us in Reconstruction Days and the days that followed. 
Let us hope that it has not been wholly destroyed. 

At Fort Mill, S. C, Capt. S. E. White erected the first monu- 
ment to faithful slaves — no doubt, many more will be erected 
throughout the South. 

At every Confederate Reunion, some of the old slaves who 
went with their masters into camp to wait on them and forage 
for them are still to be seen. Every opportunity was given these 
negroes to cross the lines to the enemy. Has any such deser- 
tion been recorded ? Every slaveholder that was able to bear 
expenses was allowed to take his valet with him to the army. 

"THE BIRTH OF A NATION" will do much to enable 
the white people of the South to right a wrong to the negroes, 
for the negroes represented there, with the exception of old 
]\Iammy, were not our faithful negroes that guarded our homes, 
but they were the bad runaway negroes that had fallen under 
the influence of the carpetbagger and the scalawag, and to whom 
had been given guns to kill and destroy, and I do not wonder 
that the negroes resent the Play for these young negroes of today 
Imow nothing of the history of those times — I would like to tell 
them about it, for I lived then and know the truth. 

The adjustment period was fearful in the South, and was 
another great factor in destroying the old civilization. The women 
of the Old South were forced then to learn, not only to cook, to 
wash and iron, but to do the most menial forms of household 
drudgery. The kitchen in the Old South was never attached to the 
house. Water had to be drawn from a well or brought from a 
spring, often entailing labor and great inconvenience, for water- 
works were unknown, and wood stoves were just introduced, very 
few were able to possess one before the war. The cooking was 
largely done in open fireplaces. Avith pot hooks and ovens, so wood 

37 



had to be cut and ashes cleared away. Tallow candles and light- 
wood knots and, occasionallj^, sperm candles for company, and 
lard lamps were the dependence for lights — ^so all of these things 
had to be adjusted. 

So many men, the heads of the house, had been killed in battle 
or died in prison. How could the mother, in the kitchen away 
from the house, continue to gather the children for family pray- 
ers? 

How could hospitality, for which the Old South was so noted, 
continue under such changed conditions — with no servants to 
do the work, and often no money to hire any or to buy necessary 
provisions ? 

The education of the children was taken from the home and 
private schools to the public schools. There had been no public 
schools under the old regime in the South. A Southern gentle- 
man resented having the State educate his child — but the changed 
condition forced this upon him, and it humiliated him. Free 
schools in the South had been only for those too poor to pay 
tuition or to employ a tutor. 

How could the husband rushing off to his business office, and 
children rushing off to school keep up that conversation around 
the family board so conducive to culture? 

Adjustment to new conditions came gradually. The kitchen 
became a part of the house ; the introduction of waterworks re- 
lieved the labor of drawing the water; gas and electric stoves 
and the tireless cooker make now the preparation of meals a 
less perplexing question ; gas and electricity have revolutionized 
the light situation; so the women of the South today are as in- 
dependent as their northern sisters and far ahead of them in 
dealing with colored help, for say what you will, the women of 
the South knowing the weaknesses of these people can better 
sympathize with them, and they do treat them with far more 
consideration than the people of other sections. There is no 
doubt that the negro finds his truest friends in the South, and 
that, too, with no social equality ideas to upset him. 

Again, Wilkins said: "There would have been no friction 
between the Southern people and the negroes, if left alone. The 
friction came from the carpetbaggers who came to alienate us 
from our friends and teach us impossible ambitions. When he 
had secured his ill-gotten gains, he left leaving us to meet the 
storm of an outraged manhood." 



38 



What Civilization Has Replaced the Old? 

PART IV. 

The civilization of today in its achievements, it must be admit- 
ted, is broader; its prospects are brighter, more steadfast and 
more buoyant. 

The slaves are free, but the slaveholders rejoice over it. The 
responsibility of caring for them, physically, morally and re- 
ligiously, was very great. But while they rejoice over their free- 
dom they have never felt the method of freeing them was just 
because it was unconstitutional. The slaveholders of the South 
are the only ones recorded in history who have had their slaves 
taken from them by force of arms without full compensation. 
I feel sure the day will come when the North will right this 
wrong. I believe Abraham Lincoln would have urged it had 
he lived, for he realized the Constitution had not been violated 
by the South, and he planned to let the seceding states into 
the Union on very easy terms, and he really wished Pres. Davis 
to escape. 

The civilization of the Old South was very different from the 
civilization of today. There was leisure then to think, to read 
and to meditate. There was time to be thoughtful of others, to 
be courteous, to be polite. In this rushing life of today we have 
lost the social graces, the charming manners, the art of letter 
writing, the gift of coversation. It is now hurry, hurry to keep 
up with the telegraph, the telephone, the type writer, the phono- 
graph, the automobile, the moving picture shows, yes, and the 
flying machine, too. 

The civilization of today is one of fearful activity. The rush 
and grind of work is wearing out the human frame. Men and 
women are being dwarfed physically, and I fear morally, and 
are dying at an earlier age. 

We have no time to study the ethics of life. We no longer are 
polite enough, chivalrous enough. The newspapers are vying with 
each other to secure the most sensational story, and draw atten- 
tion to it by the largest headlines. The owners of newspapers 
and magazines say this is absolutely necessary in order to se- 
cure subscribers — they must have what the public demands. 
Isn 't that fearful ! This throws the responsibility upon the 
reader more than upon the editor or owner. 

The managers of moving picture shows feel they must have 
some indecent representation in order to attract a crowd. They 

39 



must have what the public^ demands. Isn't that fearful! This 
throws the responsibility upon you who encourage these indecent 
representations more than upon the owner of the film. 

The youth of our land are losing modesty and the sense of 
propriety. There is a lamentable familiarity between the sexes. 
Boys calling girls by their first names on first introduction and 
girls allowing it. Boys smoking cigarettes on the street while 
walking with girls, and girls allowing it. "We had no chewing 
gum and tooth pick brigades in the Old South. 

The books on our library table and on our book shelves are 
far from being pure and true, and are leading our young peo- 
ple to have false views of life, and parents seem indifferent to 
it. Girls are needing the guidance and watchcare of good mothers 
as never before. 

Social entertainments given by women and girls are ruling 
out men and boys. The consequence is the men and boys are 
awkward in ladies' presence, and are lacking in old time chivalry. 
They keep their hats on in the presence of ladies ; they sit when 
elders enter the room ; they smoke in the presence of ladies with- 
out asking permission — they smoke while walking with ladies, 
and in the dining rooms of hotels; they fail to give their seats 
on cars or trains to standing w^omen or to aged men ; they are 
fast losing the little courtesies of life which made the old civili- 
zation so beautiful and attractive. 

The women and girls are much to blame for this for they 
are not demanding these things from the men and boys, but 
really act sometimes so as not to deserve any thing better. Our 
girls are growing bolder and less modest by trying to be mannish. 
They are seeking the men instead of making the men seek them 
as in the days of yore. ''Ole Mis' " daughters kept their lovers 
waiting a long time to get the prize w^ell worth the having, and 
then there was no changing the mind afterwards. 

It really is a selfish age — every man for himself is the rule 
of this day, and little thought of the one left behind in the race 
of life. 

Do you ask ''Is there no chivalry in the land today?" Has 
it all passed away? 

There certainly is chivalry todaj^ Thaiilc God it has not all 
passed away. I know of many homes where chivalry is not dead. 

In Richmond, Virginia, a few days ago, a Confederate vet- 
eran, very old and feeble, was tenderly assisted into a .jitney 
by a young driver with the air of a Lord Chesterfield. , When the 

40 



old man fumbled for his nickel, and was mortified that he conld 
not find it, the young man — with old time chivalry — said: ''No 
matter about the nickel, you paid your fare years ago!" 

What could have been more chivalrous? 

At the Reunion at Birmingham I failed to find a taxi and was 
forced to catch the street car with two large valises. I was 
greatly distressed as to what I should do when the station was 
reached. Quickly two boy scouts rushed up and kindly took 
the valises to the train. "When I insisted upon some compensation 
for their aid it was persistently refused with, ''It is a pleasure 
to be of assistance to an old lady. ' ' No, chivalry is not dead. 

A street car conductor made a crowd of young and middle aged 
stand back until he had gallantly aided an old lady to enter the 
car, I was the "old lady." Wasn't that chivalrous? 

There is no purity in politics today! Under the old civiliza- 
tion, bribery and corruption was treated with scorn and deri- 
sion. The office sought the man, not the man the office. Now, 
no man can gain office without money being used by or against 
him. 

"Ole Marster's" sons could not be bribed, and Ole Marster's 
sons paid their debts. "Ole Marster's" sons did not lie or steal 
or cheat or take or give an insult without demanding reparation. 
Duelling, it is true, was an evil of the old civilization which has 
passed away rightfully. 

Sometimes merchants under the old regime need not give 
their note for a bill of goods — their word was as good as their 
bond. It is not so today. 

"Ole Mis' " daughters were charming, gracious and lovable. 
They made faithful wives, devoted mothers, noted housekeepers ; 
they were pillars of the church, good neighbors, considerate 
mistresses, kind and generous to the poor. 

Do we care, today, if our home is not a religious home? 

Our grandmothers did ! It was considered a dreadful thing if 
it were not. 

Do we care if our servants, today, are not religious, and do 
not live moral lives? 

Our grandmothers did, and used all influence to help them to 
make their lives right. 

I know one family today where the mistress of the home reads 
the Bible daily to the servants as her mother did, and asks them 
into family prayers — but 'this, I fear, is a rare exception. 

Even God's blessing is being omitted from the dail}^ meals in 
many homes. 

41 



"We miss the "table talk" of those olden days where children 
were seen not heard and where our elders discussed politics, 
religion, literature, music or art. Today gossip, scandal,, coarse 
jokes or poor servants are the themes of conversation at the 
table. We were taught in the old days if we had nothing good 
to say of a person to say nothing at all. 

Today the family rarely gathers at the family altar or the 
family board. The men rush off to business, the girls and boys 
have spent the night in dancing and frolicing and so must 
turn day into night. The children rush from the dining table 
to the moving picture show. Clubs are taking the men from 
home at night and women from home in the day. The servant 
question has driven the housewives to light house-keeping, and 
apartment and hotel life. The old fireside is fast passing away ! 

One may ask "Do you really think the world is getting more 
wicked day by day?" 

No, I do not. "We are hearing more quickly of the wicked- 
ness. There are more people in the world today — and daily 
newspapers abound. I really believe more people are studying 
God's Word today than ever before. More are more keenly in- 
terested in missionary enterprises and have a deeper love and 
sympathy in their hearts for their brother man. More philan- 
thropic works are being carried on in the world than ever before. 
We had no Laymen's Movements, no Young Men's or Young 
Women's Christian Associations as we have now, doing a won- 
derful work. 

Deference to woman has always heretofore been a distinguish- 
ing characteristic of the Southern people. Deference to woman 
today cannot be said to be the distinguishing characteristics of 
the Southern people. How have we lost out? It is quite time 
to ask this question and to remedy the evil if possible. To me 
it is deplorable. 

The adjustments that had to be made in the home, in the 
state, in the country after the War between the States caused a 
complete uprooting of all customs and ways of living and think- 
ing and even after fifty years we still are suffering from this 
uprooting in the South. 

When slavery was destroyed, the women in the South had 
to enter the field of labor — a thing unheard of in the days of 
the Old South. Woman has had to think faster, act more cir- 
cumspectly to defend herself from insult and injustice as so 
many defenders of women in the South gave their lives on the 

42 



field of battle. This has made our women less gracious, but 
more independent. Organizations for women by women were 
not needed before the war, save in church work, but are now 
badly needed to meet present conditions. The women in Club 
work have met and are still meeting fearful needs of today. 
Patriotic organizations are needed to keep alive tlie spirit of 
patriotism in the hearts of the young people in the land. We 
must teach them loyalty to our government, and to our country 's 
flag, to our State and our State flag, to our city and all that 
pertains to civic righteousness. AVe must teach our Southern 
children also reverence for the Stars and Bars, that flag under 
which their Confederate fathers fought four years for the rights 
they knew were theirs, and for a cause that was never lost. 

The new civilization has made great progress in health sta- 
tistics. Sanitation is being perfected, and epidemics have been 
largely mastered, so that many localities in the South once 
uninhabitable during certain seasons of the year are now actual- 
ly health resorts. And while this may be said there have un- 
doubtedly arisen many diseases unknown before that possbily 
have come from too much germ extinction. "Who can tell ? Scien- 
tists are now studying this question. 

Instead of the South producing great political leaders as she 
did under the life on the old plantation, she is, today, produc- 
ing men of science, great inventors, men of large business affairs. 

Southern men have made Panama habitable ; they have stamp- 
ed out the yellow fever and by sanitary regulations controlled 
■many diseases. 

Southern men gave ether a.s an anaesthetic and made surgery 
possible in hospital service, suggested the hypodermic needle and 
Southern men were first to have a hospital for women — and 
first to perform an operation on the heart, and first to remove 
the appendix, and first to manufacture ice. 

Southern men have tunnelled the Hudson, planned great 
canals and dams and suggested the River and Flood system. 

Southern men have been and are still great railroad mag- 
nates and a man of the South was first to suggest a railroad com- 
mission. 

Southern men were first to suggest wireless telegraphy, if 
Marconi did perfect it; first to make an XRay apparatus, if 
the Germans did suggest it; first to use a telephone, if Bell did 
seize the thought and carrj^ it to completion; first to have a 
typesetter, if others have perfected it. 

43 



It was Southern men who first suggested a quarantine sta- 
tion, and also to suggest a weather bureau, even if Abbe has 
perfected it. 

It was Southern men who suggested an iron-clad vessel and 
a sounding apparatus. 

It was Southern men who suggested the rural delivery and 
how to cup the trees for resin. 

I don't believe you know that the largest cotton factory in 
the world under one roof is in South Carolina! 

The hottest Artesian wells in the world are in Texas. 

The largest cotton warehouse in the world is in Tennessee. 

The largest canning factory in the world is in Arkansas. 

The largest lumber mill in the United States is in Louisiana. 

The largest oil fields are in Texas, and Oklahoma. 

The largest floating dry docks in the world are in Maryland. 

The largest maganese mines in the world are in Virginia. 

The largest lead mines in the world are in Missouri. 

The largest commercial lock in the world is in Alabama. 

The Mississippi River with its tributaries is the largest river 
in the world. 

The largest cave in the world is in Kentucky. 

The largest shippers of strawberry plants in the world are in 
North Carolina. 

The oldest church in the United States is in Florida. 

The largest sulphuric acid plant in the world is in Tennessee, 
and Georgia has more sulphuric acid plants than any other State. 
Think what fertilizers mean to the farmers of today. 

The largest bauxite mines in the world are in Arkansas, and 
90% of the world's production is there. Think what aluminum 
is meaning to the world today! 

The greatest mountain of stone in the world is in Georgia — 
a geological monstrosity SEVEN"Tniles in circumference and ONE 
and ONE-HALF miles high. The perpendicular side of it is to 
be dedicated to Confederate valor. That will be the greatest 
monument in the world — a memorial to the bravest soldiers who 
ever marched to battle ! 

It has been said, "The Confederacy went down in defeat." 
If that be true, why does the Confederate soldier wear the Cross 
of Honor which is worn only by the VICTOR? 

If that be true, why are more monuments erected to the Con- 
federate soldier than to any other soldier that ever fought in 
any other war? • •:---'--—- — ^ 

44 



Monuments are not usually erected to the defeated. 

If that be true, why is the greatest monument in the world 
being erected to commemorate Confederate valor? 

No, the cause for which the Confederate soldier fought was 
in no sense a ".Lost Cause," but a great VICTORY which will 
go sounding down the ages. 

The Confederate soldiers stood for a cause they knew to be 
right. Their leader, Jefferson Davis, was never convicted of 
either treason or rebellion. The trial which he demanded, over 
and over again, was refused him and the case stands today upon 
the records in the United States Supreme Court, there to re- 
main forever, and the Cause for which he stood is vindicated in 
the eyes of the world, by the written testimony of those who 
fought against him. 

In the years to come your children's children will have no 
greater lineage of which to boast than that they descended from 
men to whom this monument is being erected — if you have not 
those proofs in hand you should have them and have them quick- 
ly — a few years may be too late. 

Now, Daughters, let us not fail to have a share in building this 
monument. It will be a monument not only to our leaders, but 
to your father and mine. The monument is going to be built 
whether we aid or not — the question is can the U. D. C. afford 
to be left out? I say we cannot afford to be indifferent to it, 
but must lend a helping hand and lend it at once. That's what 
Georgia U. D. C. are going to do. 

Our manufacturing industries are now on a large scale; Cot- 
ton is still King, but other industries are about to dethrone 
King Cotton. 

The South was first to diversify crops and the state that first 
did it was GEORGIA. 

The South, today, is far more prosperous than ever before. 
We are beginning to know more fully our possibilities. We are 
learning to utilize our own resources, and are less dependent 
upon other sections and other countries. 

We speak of the South. Do we realize what is meant by it? 
A section of 969,167 square miles, as much territory as all of 
the German Empire, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Switzerland, France 
Spain, Belgium, Holland and Great Britain combined, with a 
population of over 112,000,000. 

The War between the States taught us of the South our un- 
preparedness. The war in Europe is teaching our whole nation 

45 



our unpreparedness. Thank God for President Wilson — a man of 
peace and a man of vision ! 

The Revolutionary War brought Cavalier and Puritan to- 
gether in a common love of country, so we, today, North, South, 
East and West are being brought more closely together than ever 
before as true Americans under one flag and loyal to a Demo- 
cratic Government with State Sovereignty stressed] 

We must be ready, after this war ends, to lend a helping hand 
to all nations needing help — for no blessing will come to us if 
we allow selfishness to engulf us. 

Remember that this civilization that has replaced the old civi- 
lization rests with you and me whether it shall be a better civi- 
lization or not. Upon the individual man and woman in this 
country rests a fearful responsibility. Shall our influence — 
unconscious influence — which is the strongest— be for the upbuild- 
ing or the pulling down of this great Nation which God has en- 
trusted into our keeping? God grant that we shall one and all 
stand ever on the side of RIGHT. 



IMF McGKKiOR CO., PDIMIERS, ATHENS, GA. 

46 



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